The present invention relates in general to plate cutting devices, and in particular to a new and useful processing machine for flat, particularly plate-shaped workpieces, which uses a thermal cutting jet device, particularly a plasma-cutting device, where the cutting jet device has an opening for the cutting jet and an opening concentric thereto, for the issuance of a liquid.
Such processing machines are already known, particularly as plasma cutting machines. Both a flame-cutting jet, hence a plasma jet, and a liquid jet, which surrounds the plasma jet concentrically issue from nozzles of these machines. The liquid jet has the function, on the one hand, of cooling the nozzle, and on the other hand, of constricting the plasma jet. This leads to an increase of the energy concentration in the jet, and has a number of advantages that are already known in the industry. The workpiece to be processed is carried on supports having a water-filled tank. The plasma water jet, which emerges on the underside of the workpiece when the workpiece is cut, is conducted directly into the water of the tank, where it cools off, while the water absorbs the gases, vapors and combustion residues carried along in the jet. It is readily understandable that the maximum size of the workpieces to be processed depends on the size of the tank since the nozzle moves over the workpieces to make the cuts. If this machine is designed for relatively large workpieces, it will require an enormous space. This is actually not justified for the processing of small workpieces, and any machine size will therefore represent principally a compromise solution. In one case it is unnecessarily larger, in another it will possibly be too small for processing a larger workpiece.